Self-Driven Phase Transitions Drive Myxococcus xanthus Fruiting Body Formation

Liu, Guannan ; Patch, Adam ; Bahar, Fatmagül ; Yllanes, David ; Welch, Roy D. ; Marchetti, M. Cristina ; Thutupalli, Shashi ; Shaevitz, Joshua W.

Resumen: Combining high-resolution single cell tracking experiments with numerical simulations, we show that starvation-induced fruiting body formation in Myxococcus xanthus is a phase separation driven by cells that tune their motility over time. The phase separation can be understood in terms of cell density and a dimensionless Péclet number that captures cell motility through speed and reversal frequency. Our work suggests that M. xanthus takes advantage of a self-driven nonequilibrium phase transition that can be controlled at the single cell level.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.248102

Año: 2019

Publicado en: Physical Review Letters 122, 24 (2019), 248102 [6 pp.]
ISSN: 0031-9007

Factor impacto JCR: 8.385 (2019)

Categ. JCR: PHYSICS, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 6 / 84 = 0.071 (2019) - Q1 - T1

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 3.588 - Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO-FEDER/FIS2015-65078-C2-1-P

Tipo y forma: Article (PostPrint)